Chapter 515: Resurgence (1/2)
”The Mad Lemurs of Terra consider horror and terror as something that can be enjoyed in controlled doses. A simple viewing of 'slasher films' or 'horror movies' reveal terrifying truths about the lemurs if one is brave enough to look for them.
Or mad enough.” - Former Grand Most High Sma'akamo'o, from I Have Ridden the Hasslehoff
The scientists watched the lemur as it sat motionless inside the room. Their atmospheric controls were not responding to input and it was beginning to appear that the room was impenetrable, isolated somehow from the rest of the research station.
As they watched, a light mist covered the floor, covering her knees. Red lemur blood, heavy in iron and oxygen, crawled up her body until she was completely covered in it, her hair vanishing into the thick red liquid. It suddenly vanished, as if it was sucked into her skin.
Her hair was braided, a complex ornate set of braids with the sparkling of precious gems in it. She wore an outfit of red and black that concealed flesh but somehow made her appear lewd. A tiara of black iron was on her brow, a ruby the size of a chicken egg in the middle that glowed with a soft light.
The mist lowered and the scientists stared in shock.
She sat in a circle of purple Atrekna blood, smearing artfully in a pair of circles around her, the space between the two circles filled with warped and twisted runes that resembled Atrekna hieroglyphics and lemur runes. She sat in the middle of an eight pointed star, each point extending out past the two circles. At the tip of each point were candles of tallow rended from the adipose tissue of Atrekna, the flame steady and white.
She laughed.
A cold, malevolent thing that shimmered in the air around her, echoed in the air of the observation chamber, and touched the minds of the watching Atrekna.
Her eyes opened and the Atrekna saw they were lit with a bright red light that illuminated her eye sockets and the brown flesh around her eyes. Her face had makeup on it, dark around the eyes, white on her cheekbones, and purple on her lips. She smiled, revealing even white meat tearing teeth.
**what is it doing** the Chief Scientist asked.
**we do not know** one of the scientists answered.
**nothing. she did nothing. no phasic that we could detect just a surge of energy around her and increased activity in three of her brain structures** another stated.
**phasic activity detected** one warned.
The ruby had begun to glow, matching the glow of her eyes, and a reddish nimbus seemed to cover her brow. She stood up, a bronze and silver dagger somehow in her hands.
**where is she getting these physical objects? how is she getting them** the Chief Scientist demanded to know.
**unknown** one scientist said. It leaned down, looking closely at its instruments. **the temperature drops slightly for a moment while its internal body temperature rises in accordance to the appearance of material objects**
**perhaps it is related to** another started.
The female lemur stood up, waving her hands and chanting. A purplish and dark indigo nimbus surrounded her hands as she moved them. From her lips flowed black mist as she spoke. The words made no sense, even though some of them were familiar to the Atrekna. Somehow she was using the ancient spoken language, used rarely, interspersed with other language.
**at least three, no, four, no, five other languages** the Chief Linguistics Officer stated.
Blood dripped from her hands as she raised them up.
”I AWAKEN THEE, REGULATOR!” she shouted out.
There was a sudden spike of phasic power that burst from her, strong enough that the phasonium alloy prison reverberated with it. Power dampeners flared and shattered, the crystalline structures overloaded.
**what is a regulator** the Chief Scientist asked.
------------
I checked my system power as the weapons check finally came back at 100%. I was sitting pretty at 100% across the board, in some cases, such as my nanite repair and optimization systems, I was sitting at more than 100%.
I glanced at Peel, a combat data analyst out of Alpha Company, 108th Military Intelligence (Old Blood), our sister company for the Rangers of Delta Company (Old Hatred) 108th MI (Old Blood). She had her eyes closed, her eyes moving back and forth rapidly under the lids.
Both of us were clad in black armor. Archiac looking stuff, like platemail from a museum on Old Terra, but neither one of us were going to complain to our mysterious benefactor. The armor was still environmentally sealed hyperalloys, even if the faceplates were fashioned to look like skulls.
Of course, we were only armed with swords. Engraved and inlaid swords that were packed full of nanite systems that automatically synched up with my systems when I grabbed them. A good, heavy sword, with a variable sharpness edge. A good combat weapon.
Not that Peel knew how to use one.
I did.
My combat systems were unlocked, I could have used any of my onboard weaponry, but our benefactor had let us know we were on a space station an unknown distance from any rescue or assistance, and the last thing anyone needed was me to cut loose with my onboard weapons and blow a hole clean through the hull to outer space.
”How's it look, Control?” I asked. It was comfortable working with her, I'd worked with her plenty of times before. More than once it had been her calm voice on the comlink keeping us updated when the shit hit the fan.
Peel didn't bother opening her eyes. ”Just under a hundred of them left. Our benefactor is toying with them for some reason. Using a lot of nanite constructs molded to look like biologicals. They're going full horror-show out there.”
”Terrified enemies don't think well,” I said.
”No, they do not,” Peel said, her voice cool, remote, detached.
I was fine with that.
”Map is updating. Route is being set. Looks like our benefactor has us moving toward an area with high phasic energy systems,” Peel stated.
”I copy,” I told her. I closed my eyes.
”Updating map systems. Standby for upload,” Peel stated.
I simply waited.
Internal mapping system updated.
Routing waypoints set
Computing optimal route - done
All of it floated in my vision for a moment and in my mind, in that warm spot where I heard my own voice informing me of my status.
”Mission engagement countdown,” Peel stated. Her words floated up in my vision in the Control Font and light blue coloration.
”Standing by,” I answered.
ALL SYSTEMS ENGAGED floated up in my vision as everything went live. I felt parts of my brain come alive, felt muscles that I hadn't been born with, could feel the thudding of my cybernetic heart in my chest and the expansion of my vat grown lungs.
I SUMMON THEE, REGULATOR appeared in my vision and as a whisper in my ear. A woman's voice, throaty, sexy in the 'a few shots of whiskey and a cigarette' way that some singers were.
The wall in front of us rippled, pulling back like water parting. Mist rolled in and the lights of the hallway were flickering. The angles were off slightly, the whole thing looked like it had been designed to appear biological and grown.
I knew it was for alien aesthetics.
I led the way, radar and sonar systems up, echolocation doing its job. The mist, the fog, the flashing lights, all easily compensated for by my onboard systems. Peel moved along behind me, exactly five paces, just what training had shown.
A part of me wondered how long it had been since she had last been in the field and been forced to act as direct action control.
It didn't matter, though. What mattered was quickly moving through the hallway.
A creature loomed up, dark mauve skin, tentacles on the face, huge white eyes with a pupil so narrow it was almost invisible. Squidlike head, long fingers, wearing an iridescent robe. It was flush with phasic energy and my psychic shielding ramped up automatically as easily as breathing.
FWOOP
The psychic attack was strong enough to make the air ripple, a physical thing of biologically directed phasic energy.
I stepped through the attack, ignoring it. The medieval armor protected me to the point that my internal systems suffered no degradation from the attack. Two others loomed out of the mist as I took three rapid steps into the creature's face.
”Target species tenatively identified in military intelligence databases as: Atrekna,” Peel's voice was soft and remote. ”Previously encountered on Hesstla and several other planets. High phasic combat ability, temporal manipulation abilities of unknown strength, poor physical combatant.”
By the time she'd listed the world I was in its face, one hand reaching out. I grabbed its robe even as it cut loose with another attack.
FWOOP